Weekend Retreats

Everyone tells you that college is the best years of your life.  While Arthur and I both enjoyed aspects of college life I'm not sure either of us would call them the best years of our life or would want to go back and do it again.  However this weekend we were both able to reconnect with friends from our college years.  For about five years nine of Arthur's fraternity brothers have gotten together for a weekend getaway.  They have gone to various locations but these guys will travel from out of state to reconnect and have some quality "man time".  This year they rented a cabin near a lake, shared meals, played Frisbee golf, enjoyed the water, played games, and enjoyed sharing about their lives, jobs, thoughts, beliefs, etc.  Many of the men in this group stood next to Arthur at our wedding and have walked through the past decade of this life with him in some way or another.  I'm incredibly glad that my husband has men like this in his life and they make the effort to maintain those relationships.

I am also glad that this means I get a free weekend every August where I am footloose and fancy-free.  This year  I decided to invite my friends to get together for a similar event.  If the truth really comes out I have wanted to go camping-- real camping in a tent-- ever since we got back from New Hampshire.  Arthur hasn't been jumping up and down for the opportunity to sleep on the ground so I decided to talk several of my friends into going with me.  Luckily I have friends that can easily be coerced into adventure.  There were six gals in our camping party.  I mentioned in an email prior to the trip that while not everyone knew all the others   Two of the girls I have known for my entire lives, Hillary and Rachel.  They are actually cousins and we went to school and church growing up together.  Another friend was my cousin Eleanor.   (Some names are real and some are changed-- it is kind of hard to keep track of all my imaginary friends at times.)  Eleanor invited Sarah who lived in the same dorm with Hillary, Eleanor, and me.  Hillary invited Janae who actually spends quite a bit of time with Eleanor's family now.  It was interesting how everyone was connected.  Several times when mentioning other friends we would find out the two or three of the other gals knew the friend from different connections.

We headed out to Lake Kanopolis State Park after work on Friday.  Just driving in we saw several deer and turkeys.  We were the first people in our camp ground so we had the pick of the lot.  We chose the camp site at the far end of the camp ground away from the road and with a view of the lake.  First on our list was to get the fire started so we could eventually eat dinner.  Our friend with the firewood hadn't made it to our site yet so we tried to round up some firewood from other camp sites and dead drift wood.  While I was working on the fire, the other gals worked on setting up the tents and the rest of camp.  Once the fire burnt down to hot coals we were able to toss dinner in the fire-- hobo packs.  Hobo packs is ground beef, potatoes, onions, and seasoning wrapped up in aluminum foil to steam on the hot coals.  I found that I am quite found of tossing dinner in the fire and having something to eat 45 minutes later.  At this point we settled down in our chairs around the fire and proceeded to shoot the breeze.  The evening actually cooled off quite a bit for August and we found ourselves digging out sweatshirts and jackets.  Just as dark settling in our hobo pies were ready.  They were delicious.  Of course hunger is a very good sauce, the cover of darkness always help my cooking taste better, and everything is better while camping.  We built up the fire again since Rachel had arrived with a whole trunk full of firewood-- we were set.  Is there anything better in life than sitting around watching the flames of a campfire dance to and fro.  Of course camping is not camping unless there are s'mores-- lots of s'mores with marshmallows toasted to perfection and melted chocolates and sticky marshmallow that tends to end up all over my face.

We sat around the fire sharing about life and laughing late into the night-- much later than my usual bed time.  Janae and I were tent buddies.  It was going to be Janae's first time to actually camp in a tent.  We snuggled down into our sleeping bags listening to the night sounds.  Janae was so excited about tent camping that she didn't miss a moment of it and was awake most of the night. My tent is suppose to be a 3 person tent that was given to me by my boss.  My boss isn't the tallest person and his sons must have been pretty little to get three people in it.  We haven't used it before because there was no way Arthur could even lie down in it.  I found out that I couldn't lie down flat either so I had to sleep on my side with my knees bent.  The other gals stayed in Rachel's larger, more spacious tent.  Rachel was the one who came with the right gear to be comfortable-- a reclining camp chair, the tent, lots of firewood, and a water jug with a spigot which was very handy.  She also recently started camping a little bit and what a great asset to our trip.

Saturday morning we enjoyed breakfast overlooking the lake.  The wind had kicked up during the night and there were whitecaps on the water.  Later on the last two in our party, Eleanor and Sarah arrived.  They joined into a lively conversation about the personality test Arthur had me take on one of our early dates.  Some of the answers were hilarious and provided some fun insight into our friends.    Our next big activity was hiking.  We headed to the Horsethief Canyon trails.  Arthur and I hiked this trail last November on a cool, misty afternoon when everything was dead so it looked quite different in muggy August, overgrown with jungle-like.  My main concern was slithering reptiles hiding in the brush or rocks.  The group sent me out in front so I ventured on fairly cautiously.  Luckily the only reptiles we encountered were several small lizards.  We climbed up to a cave and a rocky outcropping for lunch.  Our discussing topic over lunch happened to be health insurance and health savings accounts.  Sarah works in health insurance and was providing all kinds of tips and helpful knowledge.  It is somewhat frightening how often I talk about health insurance with my friends-- this is a sure sign of adulthood.  (Later that evening we dove into IRAs and 401Ks.)  We continued on through the canyon and climbed out onto the prairie again.  I always enjoy hiking in a group because there is always some type of conversation to listen to.  (Hiking with Arthur is usually pretty quiet since he is pondering his own thoughts in his head.)

Our next adventure was a stop at Mushroom State Park.  We spent several minutes pondering how these rock formations ended up in a field in Kansas.  I'm sure some geologist has spent time studying this and the answer is available but sometimes in this Information Age I still like to ponder things myself and develop my own theories (which are probably wrong but have a bit of imagination in them (maybe I have been listening to too many Anne of Green Gables audiobooks which promote imagination as a virtue.))  (So for those who are interested here is what Wikipedia says:  these formations are hoodoos, meaning created through non-uniform erosion.  The top mushroom part is a hard variety of sandstone while the bottom stem part is a much softer sandstone that erodes more quickly.)  After all this scientific thought and pondering and hiking in the heat it was time to head back to civilization for Happy Hour at Sonic-- my cherry limeade hit the spot. 

Hillary has recently moved to the area and allowed us to continue the party at her home.  This was a great blessing later that evening when several severe storms rolled through the area.  I enjoyed camping but a comfy couch indoors during a storm is fun too.  Janae and Rachel had to leave after our hiking for other obligations.  Those remaining took showers, took naps, and had general introvert time.  We had plans of going to a movie or playing a game or any number of exciting things but we never paused long enough in our conversation to decide what to do-- why to gals have so much fun talking.  Pretty soon it was bedtime.  Since there wasn't a campfire we roasted marshmallows for s'mores over the stove burner before crawling into our sleeping bags and air mattresses.  Sarah and I bunked in the same room and probably were awake another 30 minutes laughing over memories from our old intramural conquests a Boyd Hall-- our conquests could only be described as laughable.

Sunday afternoon Arthur and I both returned home from our weekend retreats with friends.  We had a wonderful time but both fell onto the bed to take a nap.  It's exhausting having fun and we can't keep the hours that we did in college anymore.  College may be the best years of life but there is something to be said for a regular bedtime.  Omni Vincit Amor.